These will mostly be my adventures with baking, but will also venture into other cooking and life as well.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Banana split cupcake

While I haven't been active with this blog, I have been busy baking. That hasn't ended and so, I have a backlog of blog (rhymes!) to enter.

Here is one of my creations and it was a big hit. At the Ethical Society where I work and teach Sunday School we celebrate, sort of, Darwin Day. Years ago we had a member who would bring all the makings for Banana Splits on that day. Banana Splits for Darwin Day you say? Well, it goes like this - Darwin was about evolution right? That means we are related to monkeys/apes and what do monkeys like to eat, stereotypically? Bananas, thus, banana splits.

Well, I realized it was Darwin day like a day before that Sunday, so there wasn't time for a sign-up for people to bring items for banana splits, so I got this idea of making banana split cupcakes. Unbelievably, I could find nothing online about them. What? The internet that has ideas for everything you can imagine didn't have a banana split cupcake? A challenge for me!

So, the first part was easy. I made banana cupcakes.

I first posted this trying to get away without posting a recipe. However, I was caught being lazy, so here goes. I used this recipe from the book, "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes".

Roasted Banana cupcakes:makes 16 - so I doubled the recipe of the cupcakes only

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add roasted bananas, and beat to combine. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of sour cream, and beating until just combined after each. Beat in vanilla.

In another clean mixing bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed (clean and dried) whisk egg white to soft peaks; fold one-third whites into batter to lighten. Gently fold in remaining whites in two batches.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, felling each 3/4s full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to a wire rack to cool completely.

In another bowl I then made a strawberry filling which I injected into the cupcake (there is a special tip that plunges into the center of cupcakes and all you do is squeeze - so it fill's in like a Twinkie).

Strawberry filling:

One jar of strawberry preserves blended in a blender to liquify. (Or make homemade preserves and do the same).

Then I made a traditional buttercream and instead of milk or cream to thin it out, I took a can of pineapple, drained it and then whizzed it up in the blender to liquify it. I then added the pineapple to the buttercream. And let me tell you, that is YUMMO!

Beat butter with mixer until smooth and creamy. Add
powdered sugar in batches. Blend until smooth. Add liquified pineapple
until incorporated. If it is too liquidy to spread/pipe, added powdered
sugar until the desired consistency is reached.

About Me

I am a 48 year old working mom who is just trying to keep it together. I am the mother of two boys - Adrian who is 21 and in college and Henry who is 13 and we homeschool. I grew up in northern Iowa (go UNI!), but have moved around a lot in the nearly 25 years of marriage, though we have finally settled down in the DC metro area for the last 10 years. I dabble in lots of things, but most of them creative in making things in various, non-artistic ways (as I'm NO artist). I love to garden, cook, make crafts, create spaces/events, etc. Most most recently I'm dealing with recovering from a stroke. I have a whole lot of thoughts to work through as my life adjusts to it's new normal.